Sonic Mania & Forces Interview(s)

[Diogenes]

I think it's just a link to this video, which is just Mania's title screen, and he's pointing out the island as one of the Mode 7-ish effects that was being discussed.

[Indigo Rush]

Did

 

Did I miss something

 

[Zippo]

Huh. It's super odd how it's invisible to some people. 

[Zippo]

Finally got to read the whole interview, and maybe it's just me interpreting things wrong, but this David Jenkins guy seems like a total fucking douche. You shit on the games in front of their producer, and then you have the nerve to ask them questions like that? Do people actually think it's okay to talk to other human beings like this? I've heard awful things about Metro as a whole, but i had no idea that is how they carried themselves. He's literally giving people more ammunition to fling at us Classic Sonic fans. 

[molul]

9 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

Did

 

Did I miss something

 

Sorry, I don't get it. What does that stealth post mean? 

[ChikaBoing]

Quote

We didn’t conduct playtesting with kids for Sonic Mania, since it’s not really about what kids think about Mania. But for Forces we did conduct broad research and playtesting, and made sure it’s accepted by a broader audience, from kids to adults

Holy crap I was right when I talked about this on the first page on this thread. They did playtest, but not kids

"I want you put in my own Sonic character and give him a gun" said the 12 year old as Sonic Team were looking for ideas....

[Chris Knopps]

6 hours ago, Zippo said:

Finally got to read the whole interview, and maybe it's just me interpreting things wrong, but this David Jenkins guy seems like a total fucking douche. You shit on the games in front of their producer, and then you have the nerve to ask them questions like that? Do people actually think it's okay to talk to other human beings like this? I've heard awful things about Metro as a whole, but i had no idea that is how they carried themselves. He's literally giving people more ammunition to fling at us Classic Sonic fans. 

I think it's about time they finally did, and should do it a hell of a lot more toward Iizuka so they can finally grasp what the hell they've done wrong all these years.

Sugar coating and buttering up and wasting time hyucking around with every launch hasn't done anything for the franchise, so I hope it becomes a trend myself so they can finally steer towards a clearer and more precise direction instead of treating every game like it's just fine and dandy.

I'd say keep it up and if anything, increase the heat.

I think, personally, it's ridiculous calling interviewers out as being bad for speaking to Iizuka like this, it needs to happen, way more really, but that's just me I suppose.

[molul]

I'm divided on this. I don't like rude interviews, but  the interviewer has a point.

However, the game scores exist for the press to show if they liked the game, and sales too. If they haven't changed direction on 3D games it's because the numbers are as expected.

[Shadowlax]

12 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

I think it's about time they finally did, and should do it a hell of a lot more toward Iizuka so they can finally grasp what the hell they've done wrong all these years.

Sugar coating and buttering up and wasting time hyucking around with every launch hasn't done anything for the franchise, so I hope it becomes a trend myself so they can finally steer towards a clearer and more precise direction instead of treating every game like it's just fine and dandy.

I'd say keep it up and if anything, increase the heat.

I think, personally, it's ridiculous calling interviewers out as being bad for speaking to Iizuka like this, it needs to happen, way more really, but that's just me I suppose.

Eh, depends. Calling him out for how games were sure

I don't like shadow why is he is in this game, is a dumb ass question. Other people people like thing. 

More focused critical questions I feel will do better

[Chris Knopps]

19 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Eh, depends. Calling him out for how games were sure

I don't like shadow why is he is in this game, is a dumb ass question. Other people people like thing. 

More focused critical questions I feel will do better

Of course I don't mean they should demoralize him personally but as far as the games themselves which by and large ARE under his eye/helm no matter the degree, yes, his leadership/choices certainly need to be criticized without trying to "play nice" as much as they have over the years. Interviews that just have your typical laughter and "Hey there's Green Hill!" and such don't do anything. Critics heralded Lost World by and large yet look how its performance in the market went down.

At least this interview sounds like the folks giving it had actual history with the franchise and finally felt like saying "This work sucks" in their own way without trying to just have a good time with the developer. So often critics are nice in person then they wait until a game launches and they write something on their site to list grievances. Things like this get the point across from the get-go by letting the company know what isn't good face to face.

I'd call it refreshing and bold and greatly, GREATLY needed, not something to say "Oohh they were so mean to Mr. Iizuka!" for whatever reason.

[MudHunter]

 

One of the major E3 complaints was that the game was too easy. I hope what he says is true.

[Zippo]

Here's a little known Segabits interview with Stealth that i just got the chance to watch. Lots of details in there i didn't know. Also, Stealth confirmed that the mobile remakes can be ported to whatever console Sega wants as of now, and that Sonic 4 was indeed titled something completely different before SOA got involved. It defintely helps set the stage for Mania. 

[molul]

I saw that interview back in October I think. SoA's decision to rebrand that crap to Sonic 4 is mindblowing. I hope they fired whoever did it. Shame on him.

[Tenko]

5 hours ago, molul said:

I saw that interview back in October I think. SoA's decision to rebrand that crap to Sonic 4 is mindblowing. I hope they fired whoever did it. Shame on him.

It was likely Ben Kalough, thats probably the reason he got banished to Sega of Antartica. I feel there's a backstory to be made there haha.

[molul]

Lol, Ben kalough xD I remember, back in the Sonic 4 ep I days, shortly after it was released, that SoA called some fans to give feedback about what should be changed for ep II, and they uploaded a video in which Ken "as you truly imagined" Balough and Ben Kalough appeared together xD 

[Zippo]

More I learned from that interview:

-Sega of Japan were initially hesitant to allow Tails and Knuckles to be added to Sonic 1, fearing they would break the game. 

-Before Mania, Taxman and Stealth pitched three new Sonic games to Sega, they weren't interested. 

This is potentially a big one:

-The Retro Engine was not made for 3D. But Taxman, at least, at the time, was developing his own 3D game engine. Meaning, Taxman at least wanted to test how a 3D Sonic game would work on his design document. 

That's somehing I hope people don't skim over. That could be something massive for the future, assuming Mania really takes off. 

[Indigo Rush]

On 7/6/2017 at 3:58 PM, Tenko said:

It was likely Ben Kalough, thats probably the reason he got banished to Sega of Antartica. I feel there's a backstory to be made there haha.

Not sure if serious.

It was Ken Balough. He left Sega to work elsewhere. Ben Kalough is Skyler, aka the Totino Pope. 

13 minutes ago, Zippo said:

 But Taxman, at least, at the time, was developing his own 3D game engine. Meaning, Taxman at least wanted to test how a 3D Sonic game would work on his design document. 

Yo.

Yo.

[TheOcelot]

23 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Not sure if serious.

It was Ken Balough. He left Sega to work elsewhere. Ben Kalough is Skyler, aka the Totino Pope. 

Yo.

Yo.

Still waiting for the SA HD collection:

29 minutes ago, Zippo said:

The Retro Engine was not made for 3D. But Taxman, at least, at the time, was developing his own 3D game engine. Meaning, Taxman at least wanted to test how a 3D Sonic game would work on his design document. 

The 3d game-engine Taxman was developing was for a brand-new IP of his own creation (apparently inspired by Dreamcast elements). Nothing to do with Sonic.

[JosepHenry]

28 minutes ago, Zippo said:

More I learned from that interview:

-Sega of Japan were initially hesitant to allow Tails and Knuckles to be added to Sonic 1, fearing they would break the game. 

-Before Mania, Taxman and Stealth pitched three new Sonic games to Sega, they weren't interested. 

This is potentially a big one:

-The Retro Engine was not made for 3D. But Taxman, at least, at the time, was developing his own 3D game engine. Meaning, Taxman at least wanted to test how a 3D Sonic game would work on his design document. 

That's somehing I hope people don't skim over. That could be something massive for the future, assuming Mania really takes off. 

Someone can please pin this somehow?

Taxman doing a 3D engine is huge... Hopefully he won't give up on that.

Let's hope 

*looks at Ocelot's post*

 

Nevermind...

[ChikaBoing]

Friends to polys alike

[Zippo]

16 minutes ago, OcelotBot said:

The 3d game-engine Taxman was developing was for a brand-new IP of his own creation (apparently inspired by Dreamcast elements). Nothing to do with Sonic.

Even if that's true, just the mere thought of Taxman working on a 3D game engine that could potentially have a 3D Sonic running on it cannot be understated. Post Mania, anything could happen. 

[Jango]

More I learned from that interview:

-Sega of Japan were initially hesitant to allow Tails and Knuckles to be added to Sonic 1, fearing they would break the game. 

-Before Mania, Taxman and Stealth pitched three new Sonic games to Sega, they weren't interested. 

This is potentially a big one:

-The Retro Engine was not made for 3D. But Taxman, at least, at the time, was developing his own 3D game engine. Meaning, Taxman at least wanted to test how a 3D Sonic game would work on his design document. 

That's somehing I hope people don't skim over. That could be something massive for the future, assuming Mania really takes off. 

 

Wait, 3D Retro Engine hype aside... THREE NEW GAMES? WHAT? WHEN? HOW? I recall Taxman saying he pitched a collection of the classic games with a couple of new levels as a bonus, not three new games o.o

[Celestia]

Yeah I'm really curious about rejected game pitches, and why SEGA wasn't interested for that matter...I'm guessing that's something SEGA wouldn't want him to talk about, though. At least not anytime soon.

[YuTwo]

Since there is some discussion of Taxman's 3D engine in this page I decided to find out where Taxman himself has brought it up.

Here is some instances of him talking about this 3D engine:

In this tweet he gives a recommendation on what looks like a level editor for those writing their own 3D engine:

These posts show that he has been at least doing a 3D engine since 2015 or even possibly earlier since one of these tweets says that he had taken months in making the engine.

It doesn't really surprise me that Taxman is doing this because on his website he says:

"my goal as a programmer is to develop fast and flexible solutions for awesome 2D and 3D games on today’s mobile and digital platforms."

Even his logo has the motto, "Friend to pixels and polys alike."

 

[Milo]

On 7/9/2017 at 7:25 AM, Zippo said:

More I learned from that interview:

-Sega of Japan were initially hesitant to allow Tails and Knuckles to be added to Sonic 1, fearing they would break the game. 

-Before Mania, Taxman and Stealth pitched three new Sonic games to Sega, they weren't interested. 

Sega of Japan's fear of Tails and Knuckles breaking Sonic 1 really does make me question their understanding of the Genesis games. I guess its an absolute miracle Tails' inclusion in Sonic CD 2011 (which Taxman, for emphasis, built from scratch by himself) was able to added to the game without spontaneously crashing. Same goes for Stealth's homebrew GBA port of Sonic 1 (which has both Tails and Knuckles, who played just fine) and his Knuckles in Sonic 1 mod. And speaking of which, that's to say nothing of OG Sonic Team themselves proving that characters can be backported to older Genesis Sonic titles (Knuckles in Sonic 2).

As for the rejected pitches, I do recall Stealth mentioning with their rejected Sonic 3&K remaster pitch that around the time their Sonic 2 remaster was completed, the restructuring within Sega of America that had started in 2012 had "taken its toll": their existing / important company contacts they had were shuffled, and the resulting situation this created "was akin-enough to starting over." I wouldn't be surprised if this was the period Taxman and Stealth made their rejected pitches (and I have a feeling said Sonic 3 remaster was one of those pitches in question). I've said it before, and I'll say it again--it says a lot that Mania only got the greenlight in late 2015, in the aftermath of the Sonic Boom games bombing and SoA --alongside Sega as a whole-- undergoing (more) restructuring.